Practice Areas

Kirkland & Ellis has won a first-time mandate from struggling DIY chain Homebase, which earlier today confirmed it was planning a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). Homebase is the latest retailer to announce such a move and follows in the wake of similar CVAs entered into by New Look, Prezzo and Mothercare. A CVA can be used by […]

Royal Mail, advised by a team from Ashurst, has been unable to fend off a £50m fine from Ofcom, after an investigation into the business’s practices in 2014 found the delivery giant had “abused its dominant position in bulk mail delivery”. Three-partner firm Towerhouse advised Whistl, then known as TNT, which was trying to break into […]

Weil Gotshal & Manges and Slaughter and May have advised on the £1.2bn buyout of esure to Bain Capital in one of the largest insurance deals of the year so far. Slaughters led for esure, the owner of insurance brand Sheilas’ Wheels and former owner of price comparison website Gocompare.com. The deal team was led by corporate […]

The results of a large-scale survey by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2017 indicated, among other things, that: 75% of UK adults had one or more consumer credit products or loans in the previous 12 months; 4.1 million people were “in difficulty” because they had already failed to pay domestic bills or meet credit […]

By Miles Trower London is, arguably, the most important global hub for financial services. As a result, the consequences of the Brexit vote, the ensuing uncertainty and the eventual transitional and regulatory framework applying to UK financial services and how it will continue to access overseas markets has been subject to huge speculation. Much of […]

By Russell Kelsall On 7 August 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation on the creation of a Global Financial Innovation consultation. With innovation in the global financial services market rapidly increasing, it is important for firms to consider the options for building, implementing and sharing experiences of digital solutions.

At the end of July, the Austrian Data Protection Authority (‘DPA’) published its first decision on retention periods applying the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’; DSB-D216.471/0001-DSB/2018). The decision is final. The DPA had to decide for which period a provider of telecommunications services (hereinafter: the ‘controller’) may (respectively must) retain so-called master data, required for […]

By Michael Feit Switzerland has a long-standing tradition to serve as the seat for international disputes. Thanks to its very arbitration friendly legal framework, and overall encouraging factors such as Switzerland’s neutrality, stability and business-friendly environment, Switzerland has remained a top choice for international arbitration for parties from all over the world…

By Irina Radu One of the major objectives of the EU is reducing the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure and increasing their resilience. An adequate level of protection must be ensured and the harmful effects of disruptions on the society and citizens must be limited as far as possible. Critical infrastructures extend across many sectors of the […]

By Gelu Maravela and Daniel Alexie Depending on the size of the operator, the frequency of processing activities, and the character of the data that is processed, keeping records of all processing activity should be deemed necessary for a considerable number of operators. From our point of view, only operators that process personal data in […]

On 2 July 2018, Kazakhstan adopted the Law No. 166­VI “On amendments and changes to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Insurance and Insurance Activities, the Securities Market” (the “Law”). The Law entered into force on 15 July 2018 (with the exception of certain provisions, which will come into force later). Among […]